The Ethics School
November 4th to 6th, 2026 • Ottawa, ON

Community Ethics Excellence

Where Medical Practice
Meets Moral Wisdom
A three-day intensive for physicians who seek to ground their practice in enduring ethical principles.
November 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2026 • Ottawa, ON

Community Ethics Excellence

Where Medical Practice
Meets Moral Wisdon
A three-day intensive for physicians who seek to ground their practice in enduring ethical principles.

Introduction

Medicine has always been about more than technique. At its heart, it is a moral practice—one that requires not just clinical skill but wisdom, virtue, and a deep understanding of what it means to care for another human being.

The Ethics School brings together physicians and physicians-in-training for three days of rigorous inquiry into the foundational principles that should guide medical practice. Through lectures, interactive case discussions, and thoughtful dialogue, participants will explore the moral architecture of medicine and how it applies to the challenges you face every day in clinical care.

What To Expect

Over the course of three days, you will:

  • Examine the philosophical foundations of medical practice, from natural law to human anthropology

  • Engage with the Hippocratic tradition and rediscover the purpose of medicine
  • Wrestle with contemporary challenges in gender identity, end-of-life care, and addiction medicine

  • Practice moral reasoning through interactive case discussions on conscience, autonomy, and medical futility

  • Learn from leading scholars and clinicians who have dedicated their careers to understanding medicine as a moral endeavor

  • Connect with colleagues who share your commitment to practicing medicine with integrity

This is not a conference where you passively absorb information. The Ethics School is an invitation to think deeply, to question your assumptions, and to cultivate the moral wisdom that sustains good medicine over a lifetime.

Who Should Attend?

Practicing Physicians Across All Specialties

Residents and Fellows

Medical Students in Their Clinical Years

Other Healthcare Practitioners Committed to Ethical Practice

Our Faculty

Jeremy Bannon

MD, MA, CCFP

Jeremy Bannon, MD, MA, CCFP, is a Canadian physician and bioethicist with interests in clinical ethics, end and beginning-of-life decision-making, transplant ethics, and the ethical assessment of emerging medical technologies. He is a Hospitalist at Hotel Dieu Shaver Rehabilitation Hospital in St. Catharines, Ontario, and an Assistant Clinical Professor (Part Time) at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. He holds an MD from the University of Alberta, completed family medicine residency at McMaster University, is certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and earned an MA in Catholic Clinical Ethics from Georgetown University.

Farr Curlin

MD

Farr Curlin, MD, is Josiah Trent Professor of Medical Humanities in the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, & History of Medicine and Co-Director of the Theology, Medicine and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke University. In 2012 he helped to found both the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion and the Annual Conference on Medicine and Religion. Starting in 2023, Dr. Curlin also is working with colleagues across North America to develop the Hippocratic Society, an association of students and practitioners dedicated to fulfilling the profession to heal. He is co-author, with Chris Tollefsen, of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (Notre Dame University Press, 2021), as well as more than 150 articles and book chapters addressing the moral and spiritual dimensions of medical practice.

Benjamin Frush

Md, MA

Benjamin Frush, MD, MA, is a physician trained in internal medicine, pediatrics, and palliative care. He studied at UNC School of Medicine and the Theology, Medicine, and Culture fellowship at Duke Divinity School prior to completing residency and chief resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and fellowship at UNC Hospitals. He is the current McDonald Agape Fellow in Bioethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, where his scholarship takes up questions surrounding the ethics of medical training, end-of-life care, and the intersection of theology, moral philosophy, and clinical practice.

Nathan Gamble

MD, MA, MSc

Nathan Gamble, MD, MA, MSc, is a cardiac intensivist at the University of Alberta. He holds an undergraduate degree in global health from McMaster University. Nathan attended medical school at the University of Toronto, and subsequently completed training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Alberta. He currently works as a cardiac intensivist at the Mazankowski Heart Institute in Edmonton, while he finishes a fellowship in critical care medicine. Nathan has an MA in bioethics and medical law from St Mary’s London, as well as an MSc in clinical trials from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Quentin Genuis

MD CCFP-EM MLitt

Quentin Genuis, MD, CCFP-EM, MLitt (St. Andrews), is an emergency physician and ethicist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. He serves as the physician ethicist for Providence Health Care, and is a Sessional Faculty and the Professional in Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, where he teaches on topics including medical ethics and addiction.

Ewan Goligher

MD PhD FRCPC

Ewan Goligher, MD, PhD, FRCPC, is Associate Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. He practices critical care medicine in the medical-surgical intensive care unit at Toronto General Hospital. His academic interests include respiratory muscle physiology, Bayesian statistics and adaptive clinical trials, research ethics, and the ethics of end-of-life care.

Anastasia Zello

MD, FRCPC

Anastasia Zello, MD, FRCPC, is a pediatric emergency physician at McMaster Children’s Hospital and a graduate student in Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Saskatchewan and, subsequently completed pediatrics residency followed by subspecialty training in pediatric emergency medicine at the University of Alberta. Her academic interests include medical education and ethical issues related to prenatal, neonatal, and pediatric care

Ready to Join Us

Space is limited to ensure meaningful dialogue and interaction.